The Neutral Athletes B team clinched the Division One title after beating Israel in a hard-fought battle, though they kept the game under control in the second half. Poland edged out Belgium with a shootout win to claim the bronze medal.
The match began the same way as the NAB team’s semi, the rival, this time Israel, managed to take a strong start and jumped to a 3-1 lead. However, the Russians geared up before the first break and came back to even at 3-3.
They carried on their momentum scoring three action goals in a row in less than three minutes while Israel lost one of their key players Raz Segere with a red card. Tomer Arazi’s centre shot halted the Russians 5-0 run – and his side’s eight-minute-long drought – and with 1:37 to go, he netted another one. Israel had a man-up later but missed it so it stood 5-6 at halftime.
And they had another extra right after the restart but missed it and, as it turned out soon, that was their last real chance to stay close. Emil Nasanbaev netted the following Russian man-up, then they forced back-to-back penalties, the first was missed, Ilia Vasilev buried the next to send his team three goals up. And there were more to come, a great shot from the centre, then a typical Russian counter just 34 seconds later made it 5-10 with 2:40 to go in the third. This 0-4 rush was decisive, though Israel could score a bit later but trailed by four before the fourth.
And it took 67 seconds to put end to the contest as Artem Dreval converted an extra and Roman Krylov added another one from the centre for 6-12. Israel, with nothing to lose, managed to score three connecting goals, but it was still 9-12 and time was ticking down as only 1:30 remained on the clock. They missed their last extra, while the Russian had the cherry on the cake with 10 seconds from time when Nikita Potashkin buried a 5 on 4 to secure a worthy end to the Russians’ great run as they finished first by winning all their matches in Oeiras.
The fight for the bronze offered a lot more excitements. Poland had a great start and led 5-2 but the Belgians started climbing back deep into the second and they netted three in a row to tie it at 7-7. Then the Polish netted back-to-back man-ups but a buzzer beater centre shot from Robien Sergeant halved the distance to make it 9-8 at halftime.
The Polish could reset the two-goal gap twice in the third, but the Belgians had the better finish and tied the game for 11-11 before the final quarter.
Another centre-shot from Sergeant gave the lead for Belgium after a long time but it didn’t last long as Piotr Kedzior’s double in 45 seconds swung back the lead to Poland. Still, the Belgians earned a penalty 1:46 from time and Lev Dams sent it home to equalise once more for 13-13. Both sides could have won it but missed their respective extras in the remaining time, so the decision was left to the shootout.
The Polish buried all four they had to take while their goalie Igor Michalski came up with back-to-back saves in the third and fourth round to secure the bronze to his side.
Georgia edged out Ukraine for the 5th place, and host Portugal also win a thriller against the Neutral Athletes A team to finish 7th. Great Britain claimed the 9th place after a fine win over Switzerland while Lithuania outclassed Finland to grab the 11th position.
Men’s U20 European Water Polo Championships, Division One, Oeiras
Final: Israel v Neutral Athletes B 9-12
Bronze medal match: Poland v Belgium 13-13, pen: 4-2
For the 5th place: Georgia v Ukraine 13-12
For the 7th place: Neutral Athletes A v Portugal 15-16
For the 9th place: Switzerland v Great Britain 9-11
For the 11th place: Lithuania v Finland 29-11
For detailed results:
For Division Elite results, check out the results on this link:
Watch each game from both divisions live on www.euroaquaticstv.com
